Streaming Tight Ends: Week 4 Fantasy Football Targets

Sep 26, 2017

Week 4 is upon us, and it’s time to evaluate your roster choices and gauge if the TE you drafted is worthy of starting this week, or if you’re better off hitting the waiver wire in search of a better option. If you purposely approached drafting the TE position with the intention of streaming weekly, I’ve got you covered there, as well. As a strategy, streaming aims to find players with above average matchups, which can hopefully translate to TE1 production for your fantasy squad.

The main focus of our research when looking at a TE’s matchup is 4for4’s Schedule-Adjusted Fantasy Points Allowed (aFPA) metric. As the season continues to progress and more data is available, aFPA becomes more and more reliable, using rolling 10-week data. Targets and efficiency metrics are also considered when coming up with weekly TE streamers.

The goal in streaming is to roster a player that is going to return TE1 fantasy points and Week 3 included some hits and a few misses. My best streamer was Jared Cook with 14.3 PPR points, followed by Ben Watson with 10.2, and Austin Seferian-Jenkins with 8.1. Ed Dickson and Gerald Everett let me down with 1.8 and 0 PPR points.

After three weeks of football, 4for4 streaming candidates are averaging 8.7 PPR fantasy points per game, which currently ranks as TE13. The optimal TE streamer has 51.3 PPR fantasy points, enough for TE2 on the season thus far. On to Week 4 and the players who can bail you out of a bad draft choice, or simply provide the weekly streaming points you crave.

In order to provide advice that you can actually implement, candidates for streaming must be available in at least 40% of Yahoo fantasy leagues.

Charles Clay (BUF) @ ATL

Clay has put up over 15 PPR points in two out of three games this season, and appears to be a favorite weapon for QB Tyrod Taylor, as his 18 targets are second on Buffalo’s roster to only LeSean McCoy’s 20. With a combined 36.5 PPR points through the first three weeks, Clay currently ranks as TE5 on the season.

In Week 4, the Bills travel to Atlanta to face a Falcons team that ranks in the middle of the league versus TEs, with an aFPA of 10.8 PPR points to opposing TEs. As long as the Taylor-to-Clay connection keeps working, I see no reason for the Bills offense to deviate from it. Clay is rostered in 21% of Yahoo fantasy leagues, and makes a solid choice for your Week 4 streamer.

Continue reading for three more streaming options, and four deep league candidates...